Former IAS officer appointed on Maha UCC panel

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Shatrughna Singh, a retired IAS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre, has been appointed as a member of the MaharashtraUniform Civil Code committee. The proposal was approved by the Maharashtra government early this week. This was after the chairperson of the committee moved a proposal to include him in the panel. Ranjana Desai, retired Supreme Court judge, heads the panel.

“The proposal was sent by her quite a few days ago. Mr. Singh has worked with her previously on the consultations related to the Uniform Civil Code. He knows the functioning of the panel due to his past experience. That is why Ms. Desai had requested that he should be made a part of the committee. The government approved her proposal recently,” a senior government official told The Hindu.

When asked if the appointment was made after the resignation of former Bombay High Court judge R.C. Chavan, the official said that the two incidents were unrelated. “The decision of Mr. Singh’s appointment is independent of any other development, least of all the resignation of Justice [retired] R.C. Chavan. These are two unrelated incidents. There is no statutory requirement for the panel to consist of seven members. We can have more than eight or less than seven,” the official said.

Mr. Chavan had recently tendered his resignation, citing serious reservations about certain aspects of the functioning of the panel. He had levelled criticism at the panel’s methodology, questioning the purpose of consensus-building by underplaying complex issues.

Maharashtra UCC panel was formed two months ago to draft a framework for the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code. It consists of former High Court judge S.G. Mehare, Maharashtra ex-chief secretary D.K. Jain, former advocate general Virendra Saraf, constitutional expert Ramesh Patange and educationist Suvarna Rawal. It has been asked to examine the legal, social, cultural and administrative aspects of the Uniform Civil Code and give a report about it in six months. The panel will do a comparative study of the experiences of other states which have already implemented the code.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has earlier said that the State government will table the legislation this year during the winter session. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said in his address in Mumbai this month that the UCC will be introduced in 21 States before the year 2029. The year 2029 is when the next Lok Sabha elections will be held.

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